Television: Next Question, Please

• Share

Many fans of TV's third-degree interview shows (The Mike Wallace Interview, Night Beat] nurture the hope that they may one day see the victim turn on the inquisitor and cut him down to size. Last week it happened. In Manhattan, WABD's Night Beat filled its "hot seat" with Journalist Randolph Churchill, only son of Sir Winston. He listened politely to his introduction as a man who has been labeled "outspoken, ill-tempered and fearless." But when TV Torquemada John Wingate brought up the "unfortunate incident involving the arrest of your sister Sarah in California" (TIME, Jan. 27), Churchill more than lived up to his billing.

"I never discuss matters affecting members of my family with total strangers," he erupted. "You sent some hired hack-of yours to see me this morning to discuss with me the topics you wished to discuss—you pretend it's all unrehearsed. This was not one of those he raised. I do not intend to discuss it with you. You are a total stranger to me and I suppose the few hundred people looking in at this small television station, which has not yet managed to get itself network, that they are most of them strangers to me and I have no intention of discussing it among them. Next question, please."

"Dirty People." Wingate tried to protest that Churchill was belittling the size of the show's audience (estimated 500,000), but Randolph rolled right on: "I wouldn't think of asking you about your sisters. I was warned. They said, 'Don't you trust them. They'll spring something dirty, mean, caddish on you.' I've not been disappointed by what my friends said."

"Who told you not to trust us?" demanded Wingate.

"I never reveal my sources of information," shot back Churchill. "I'm a journalist, not a television interviewer. One's only doing you a favor by coming, I mean, you're making a lot of money. Some dirty people who sell soap are making a lot of money out of it. I'm not getting a farthing out of it. Why the hell should I let myself be bullied around and kicked around by you? We [in England] do as we choose and we just don't take it bloody lying down. Your shame is on your own head, and I don't know what we're trying to sell. I didn't bother to look up what your sister has done or who your father was. I don't even know if you had a father or if you know who your father was."

Back to the Attack. Swallowing hard, Wingate obeyed a hurriedly scrawled note from one of the producers: "Don't lose your temper—let him carry it." He even managed to put some more questions. But when Churchill heard one asking him to explain his charge that Americans have "deteriorated in character," he returned to the attack: "Everybody wants to do the same thing, and they're frightened and bulldozed, even bullied, often by people like yourself. I mean I'm not frightened of you. Why the hell should I be? I mean I'm leaving the country tomorrow and I can get along very well without you."